TEENAGER Lucy Smith has reached two inter-area finals in the ladies national indoor bowls championships for the second year in a row.

The 19-year-old Westlecot indoor bowler from West Swindon, is through to the section 9/10 inter-area final in the ladies singles, and together with her sister Katy, 18, has also qualified for the inter-area pairs final.

Lucy, who won the Area 10 singles crown for the first time last season and went onto raise a few eyebrows when reaching the ladies national singles semi-finals at Melton & District before losing to England skip Janice Gower, had to work hard to retain her Area 10 singles crown.

After a journey of over two hours to face Jennie Cole on her own green at Leominister, Smith took a while to settle down, adjust to the pace of the carpet and found herself 12-2 down.

She cut the gap to 12-5 but then Cole moved into a 16-5 lead.

Smith fired back producing a superb comeback reeling off a succession of ends to move ahead for the first time at 18-17 but Cole restored parity on the next with a single.

However, Smith was not to be denied and closed out the match with a single and a count of two for a 21-18 win.

Lucy who made her England U25 debut last season against Scotland progresses to the inter-area final against Area 9 champion, Amy Stanton (Welford-on-Avon), an England senior international and the 2012 World Indoor U25 champion, at Midglos on Friday, February 13. It is a repeat of last year’s inter-area final when Smith beat Stanton 21-18.

Smith ,19 and her younger sister Katy, 18, who retained their Area 10 pairs title recently with a 23-16 win over MidGlos now face an inter-area final against Rugby Thornfield’s Yvonne Bromfield and her partner on the neutral green at Solihull on Saturday February 7 - just one step away from the final stages and last 16 at Melton & District (Leics) in early April.

Katy will be looking for better fortunes as she missed out in her bid to win a national title last weekend at White Oak (Swanley, Kent).

She went out in the last 16 of the U25 ladies championship losing 1.5-0.5 to Wellingborough’s Chloe Wordingham who went on to win the title.

Smith lost the first set but then drew the second being pegged back to 8-8 on the last end..

Elsewhere in the ladies national championships, the trio from Westlecot of Jill Webb, Wendy Anderson and Linda Perfitt lost 21-6 at home in the inter-area final of the women’s Over 50s two wood triples to Diana Thurlbeck’s triple from Avon Valley (Warks).

The men’s championships in Area 10 have only just reached the area finals stage with Westlecot only still involved in two events.

The rink of Kevin Embling, Chris Cheesley, Ian Jefferies and Neil Smith are due to face Nathan Kitchen’s MidGlos quartet on their own green on Wednesday February 4 while Dave Snell has to go to MidGlos also to play Jack Dempsey (MidGlos) in the area final in the Over 60s singles.